Literally just moved up to Portland, OR from SF. I'm 27. Graduated with an MFA from SFAI. And you can see more of my work at www.artbyadamfriedman.com

How would you describe your work to someone?

To keep in simple, I'm fascinated by geology, the natural world, and the relativity of time's duration. I try to show earthly processes that humans would consider "slow," happening really fast or instantly. The images are an optimistic view of the natural world, post human presence.

Influences?

Oh man... so many. I love the Hudson River School painters... Casper David Freidrich, Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Church, etc. Contemporary painters like Paul Davies, Ricky Allman, Paul Wackers, James Chronister, and many many more. I have tons of talented friends, like Robert Minervini, Nicholas Bohac, Kevin E Taylor, Ben Venom, and Jon Casey Clary, who are killing it! I read a lot... Edward Abbey is my hero.

I spent a lot of time at the Chicago Art Museum when I was younger. I found the works
of the 17th century Dutch masters particularly interesting; I would try to dissect the
paintings layer by layer in my mind. I figured that magicians must have made them. I
wanted to be a magician too.

I draw people from direct observation. The conversation I have with them during the portrait sitting along with the different expressions and emotions they convey inform how the portraits look. I depict an array of attitudes that will give the viewer insight as to the true nature of the sitter thereby creating an image that holds significance beyond their name and identity alone. They are essentially about how we get to ‘know’ someone, how we connect and what we honestly see when we look at a person. People are fluid creatures that do not sit still and their faces act as a window into a constantly changing stew of thoughts and emotions. What I see in a few hours can say so much about a person’s entire life. They capture so much more than a photograph.

Influences?

Right now I am super interested in the animation work of Chuck Jones and Max Fleisher.

My work is about the influence of western culture on the rest of the world especially the developing world, I look at it as a constant work in progress, I like to look like a possible future or the shape of things to come. I like the idea of using pop icons and objects of consumerism as metaphors and I like to make stories for every image I create. I hate over complicating things when I describe my work, all that art spiel annoys me. Sometimes it's best to just show people and let them make their own mind up.

Influences?

Shit that makes me angry or upset, it's important to know what's going on outside. I get influenced by so much and I change my mind all the time, one minute I'm obsessed with one thing and then 2 days later it's something completely different. But that's a good thing right. I think, because of the nature of my subject matter and the culture I live in, everything around me adds influence. Constant Growth. But I'm into Bill Murray films, Wes Anderson, Jim Jarmusch, Spike Lee, Stanley Kubrick and Coppola. I like films that look at themes of Madness, I've watched Apocalypse Now (Redux) about 20 times now, J.G Ballard, Arturo Herrera, Philip Guston, Claes Oldenburg, Tom Sachs, Sol LeWitt, Jean Michel Basquiat, Istvan Banyai, Rammellzee, hip-hop fucking music. I could go on forever.

I'm just finishing up reading The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick and I'm about to start reading Johnny Mad Dog by Emmanuel Dongala. Good shit.

Cheese burgers or tofu burgers?

Is this how to determine whether someone is a meat eater or vegetarian? (cheese)

Edinburgh, UK, 22, Edinburgh College of Art, BA (Hons) Drawing and Painting, graduated July of this year., www.matthewdanielswan.com

How would you describe your work to someone?

That’s a tough one; I’d say I make images, mainly through painting and drawings. My work is all character driven and I draw inspiration from a massive range of sources. For my Degree Show, I wrote this about my work... Recent works play on the frenetic visuals of heavily costumed live-action Japanese serials, pulp cartoons and the detritus of consumption as a manifestation of database culture and non-narrative. My work exists through an unapologetic embrace of the above and equally through the spontaneity of the mark making process as an embodiment of a fictitious and absurd arena.... I wrote that right after doing my dissertation (on designer toys and consumerism), It does the job but it’s quite heavy on the rhetoric.

Influences?

Trenton Doyle Hancock is a massive influence. He had a show in Edinburgh a few years back (‘The Wayward Thinker’ at the Fruitmarket Gallery) and it was incredible. I’m really into the work of Todd Schorr, and Nigel Cooke too, and I’ve been watching a lot of power rangers recently, the really old stuff from the 70’s. I want to reference that in my work, it’s so good!

Cheese burgers or tofu burgers?

Cheese Burgers all the way, with bacon on top, and chocolate/raspberry milkshake on the side.

Ok, so what's the deal with the nudes? How are you and why are you getting those shots? They don't seem like traditional porn, obviously, but... well... Explain please.

that's a loaded question. i guess it all started back when i first picked up a camera in high school. i remember my photo teacher believed i showed promise and would push me to shoot as much as possible and enter me in contests and whatnot. you know, like a "don't let school get in the way of your education" type thing which i didn't like at all cause i hated everything school. not cause i'm a fucking bad ass or anything, but cause i'm a special ed. kid so i guess every time the spot light was on me i thought it would just expose the fact that i was slower or that i was on "that team" (fyi: that team is the shit) it was one of the only classes i was in that was a normal class and i was still kind of getting put on the spot. in a super rad way, but still it made me uncomfortable. anyhow, she entered me in a studio lighting contest and i knew i didn't want to take a photo of a fucking wine glass or shit like that, so i thought how about shooting some nudes?

so by something like my tenth roll of film ever shooting i shot a naked girl with roserybead and a bible. after all that i moved up to san francisco to go to the academy of art which i dropped out of after about two weeks and i stopped taking photos all together.. i guess until about a year ago but right after i dropped out i moved in with the beautiful mr. alex pardee and his girlfriend at the time and we loved going to the magazine where we'd get old porn magazines and i started collected nude snap shots. i'm not really a porn guy, i don't know any of the big porn stars or anything. i'm down with that homemade shit. so a lot of the photos i was buying were taken with a disposable camera or polaroids where the girl didn't want to show her face and it seemed like they just told stories which intrigue me or at least i would drape little stories like ornaments on photo i really just liked looking at. like, maybe this woman always wanted to pose naked, but if anyone ever saw them her life would be over or maybe these photos were of some dudes mistress or this girl's just a hooker. so i found myself staring at these photos for more then just tits and i also loved that fact that everyone was so normal. some girls were big, some had little boobies, some had no ass, some were super skinny, some were moms and being a normal guy i'm alway curious on what women look like naked and most woman aren't porn stars so when i started taking photos again i've been taking photos of just about whoever will let me. it's super funny though, i opened the door wide open for anyone to walk through and most of the girls have been these gorgeous models and i've found lot of what people have been referring to as the more interesting women on myspace and shit. so at this point where i've shot so many nudes, i've got my system down. i never ask people to pose. i just ask them questions about their lives and after someone's been naked for an hour, talking about their job or their boyfriend(s) or the fact that they're insecure about their body and posing nude empowers them-i think magic happens. so when i'm saying i want to create a "porn type" book, i really do want it to be a porn type book, but my type of porn. everyday people and i also think i found some couples who feel comfortable with me shooting them having sex, but still for whatever reason if you're shooting photos that are deficient in taste, but with an old rolleiflex with black and white film it magically suggests "art work". so i've been searching for the perfect blend of making my mom proud and disgusted, but being 1000% kevin hayes.

Words are tricky, I'm never sure about how to describe my work. I
actually kinda suck at that.. Well, I think there are both psychedelic
and gothic vibes to it. It is colourful and filled up with dark
figures. People often find it mystical, poetic and mysterious. There
is obviously a certain feeling that refers to magic, tales, some kind
of twisted romanticism maybe.. Recently I've been trying to work on
less narrative compositions, focusing a little more on pure shapes and
patterns.

All done with paper cutouts. It's easy to look at and think illustrator or something, but no, these are all hand done and done very well. -Fecal Face.

Tell us a little bit about yourself ( where you live, what you do etc...)

I grew up about an hour south of LA and moved up here in 2004 to go to UCLA. Half way through college I started working for Shepard Fairey and am currently gallery manager at Subliminal Projects and do some t-shirt graphics for OBEY Clothing on the side. I live in a crazy house of five girls, which always makes for a good time.

Can you talk a little bit about your content, you seem drawn toward epic nature, Why do you draw what you do and how do you decide what you want to draw next?

It's exciting to me. In an over-stimulated world this is the stuff the holds my attention and surprises me. I'm not sure if it is because I grew up in Southern California and I'm not used to dramatic weather but there is something very shocking but at the same time very beautiful about events like a thunderstorm. My mom and I where in Santa Fe one time when a huge thunderstorm broke out, we were absolutely captivated and watched it for hours like it was TV. As long as it has that ability, I'll be drawn to it. I am also interested in subject matter that is not tied to a specific time period and that can be relevant outside of the context of my personal experience. These naturally occurring events are much bigger than you and I and are something we have no control over. I think that is a nice reminder of our time and place here and understanding why things happen the way they do in the natural world can answer a lot of life's big questions. When I'm deciding what to draw for the larger pieces it is usually based on a current fascination that I've spent a lot of time researching. I pull a lot of photos and create folders for each subject and then it becomes a matter of piecing different elements together to create the image.

Who/ why all the wrestling in your work? How did you get excited about that?

When I was a kid I was really into wrestling. I would rent all the old pay per view tapes form Blockbuster and keep track of all the matches in a notebook. I so badly wanted to be Jake the Snake or the Million Dollar Man. I guess now I use wrestling imagery to speak about and engage my childhood perceptions of being a man. I also just think wrestling is great subject matter and the kind of stuff that my 8 year old self would really dig.

I'm not sure how many people are lucky enough to have The San Francisco Giants 3 World Series trophies put on display at their work for the company's employees to enjoy during their lunch break, but that's what happened the other day at Deluxe. So great.

When works of art become commodities and nothing else, when every endeavor becomes “creative” and everybody “a creative,” then art sinks back to craft and artists back to artisans—a word that, in its adjectival form, at least, is newly popular again. Artisanal pickles, artisanal poems: what’s the difference, after all? So “art” itself may disappear: art as Art, that old high thing. Which—unless, like me, you think we need a vessel for our inner life—is nothing much to mourn.

Hard-working artisan, solitary genius, credentialed professional—the image of the artist has changed radically over the centuries. What if the latest model to emerge means the end of art as we have known it? --continue reading

"[Satire] is important because it brings out the flaws we all have and throws them up on the screen of another person," said Turner. “How they react sort of shows how important that really is.” Later, he added, "Charlie took a hit for everybody." -read on

NYC --- A new graffiti abatement program put forth by the police commissioner has beat cops carrying cans of spray paint to fill in and cover graffiti artists work in an effort to clean up the city --> Many cops are thinking it's a waste of resources, but we're waiting to see someone make a project of it. Maybe instructions for the cops on where to fill-in?

The NYPD is arming its cops with cans of spray paint and giving them art-class-style lessons to tackle the scourge of urban graffiti, The Post has learned.

Shootings are on the rise across the city, but the directive from Police Headquarters is to hunt down street art and cover it with black, red and white spray paint, sources said... READ ON

SAN FRANCISCO --- The Headlands Center for the Arts is preparing for their largest fundraiser of the year set to go down on June 4th at SOMArts here in the city. Art auction, food, drinks, live music, etc and all for helping to support a great institution up in the Marin Headlands. ~details

ABOUT HEADLANDSHeadlands Center for the Arts provides an unparalleled environment for the creative process and the development of new work and ideas. Through a range of programs for artists and the public, we offer opportunities for reflection, dialogue, and exchange that build understanding and appreciation for the role of art in society.

We haven't been featuring many interviews as of late. Let's change that up as we check in with a few local San Francisco artists like Kevin Earl Taylor here whom we studio visited back in 2009 (PHOTOS & VIDEO). It's been awhile, Kevin...

If you like guns and boobs, head on over to the Shooting Gallery; just don't expect the work to be all cheap ploys and hot chicks. With Make Stuff by Peter Gronquist (Portland) in the main space and Morgan Slade's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow in the project space, there is plenty spectacle to be had, but if you look just beyond it, you might actually get something out of the shows.

Fifty24SF opened Street Anatomy, a new solo show by Austrian artist Nychos a week ago last Friday night. He's been steadily filling our city with murals over the last year, with one downtown on Geary St. last summer, and new ones both in the Haight and in Oakland within the last few weeks, but it was really great to see his work up close and in such detail.

Congrats on our buddies at Needles and Pens on being open and rad for 11 years now. Mission Local did this little short video featuring Breezy giving a little heads up on what Needles and Pens is all about.

Matt Wagner recently emailed over some photos from The Hellion Gallery in Tokyo, who recently put together a show with AJ Fosik (Portland) called Beast From a Foreign Land. The gallery gave twelve of Fosik's sculptures to twelve Japanese artists (including Hiro Kurata who is currently showing in our group show Salt the Skies) to paint, burn, or build upon.

Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne played host to a huge group exhibition a couple of weeks back, with "Gold Blood, Magic Weirdos" Curated by Melbourne artist Sean Morris. Gold Blood brought together 25 talented painters, illustrators and comic artists from Australia, the US, Singapore, England, France and Spain - and marked the end of the Magic Weirdos trilogy, following shows in Perth in 2012 and London in 2013.

San Francisco based Fecal Pal Jeremy Fish opened his latest solo show Hunting Trophies at LA's Mark Moore Gallery last week to massive crowds and cabin walls lined with imagery pertaining to modern conquest and obsession.

Well, John Felix Arnold III is at it again. This time, he and Carolyn LeBourgios packed an entire show into the back of a Prius and drove across the country to install it at Superchief Gallery in NYC. I met with him last week as he told me about the trip over delicious burritos at Taqueria Cancun (which is right across the street from FFDG and serves what I think is the best burrito in the city) as the self proclaimed "Only overweight artist in the game" spilled all the details.

Ever Gold opened a new solo show by NYC based Henry Gunderson a couple Saturday nights ago and it was literally packed. So packed I couldn't actually see most of the art - but a big crowd doesn't seem like a problem. I got a good laugh at what I would call the 'cock climbing wall' as it was one of the few pieces I could see over the crowd. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and check it all out again, but I'm definitely going to as the paintings that I could get a peek at were really high quality and intruiguing. You should do the same.

The paintings in the show are each influenced by a musician, ranging from Freddy Mercury, to Madonna, to A Tribe Called Quest and they are so stylistically consistent with each musician's persona that they read as a cohesive body of work with incredible variation. If you told me they were each painted by a different person, I would not hesitate to believe you and it's really great to see a solo show with so much variety. The show is fun, poppy, very well done, and absolutely worth a look and maybe even a listen.

With rising rent in SF and knowing mostly other young artists without capitol, I desired a way to live rent free, have a space to do my craft, and get to see more of the world. Inspired by the many historical artists who have longed similar longings I discovered the beauty of artist residencies. Lilo runs Adhoc Collective in Vienna which not only has a fully equipped artists creative studio, but an indoor halfpipe, and private artist quarters. It was like a modern day castle or skate cathedral. It exists in almost a utopic state, totally free to those that apply and come with a real passion for both art and skateboarding

I just wanted to share with you a piece I recently finished which took me 4 years to complete. Titled "How To Lose Yourself Completely (The September Issue)", it consists of a copy of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine (the issue they made the documentary about) with all faces masked with a sharpie, and everything else entirely whited out. 840 pages of fun. -Bryan Schnelle

Jeremy Fish opens Hunting Trophies tonight, Saturday April 5th, at the Los Angeles based Mark Moore Gallery. The show features new work from Fish inside the "hunting lodge" where viewers climb inside the head of the hunter and explore the history of all the animals he's killed.

Beautiful piece entitled "The Albatross and the Shipping Container", Ink on Paper, Mounted to Panel, 47" Diameter, by San Francisco based Martin Machado now on display at FFDG. Stop in Saturday (1-6pm) to view the group show "Salt the Skies" now running through April 19th. 2277 Mission St. at 19th.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to quit my job, move out of my house, leave everything and travel again. So on August 21, 2013 I pushed a canoe packed full of gear into the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, along with four of my best friends. Exactly 100 days later, I arrived at a marina near the Gulf of Mexico in a sailboat.

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